CDNPolar

We were on a recent Viking River that included what they called a "Leisure" group. This was the first time we had seen this, and it was offered for all the included excursions. This group would ideally cover similar ground, but would move at a slower pace. Funnily, one Mother and Daughter that we got to know signed the 90'ish year old Mother up for this group. Mother walked with a cane. She abandoned this group on day three because she said they moved too slow for her. Hopefully Viking will keep this up because it is needed for many people.

I get what you are saying, but... I don't want to be on a ship with 2500 or more guests, and pardon me for saying this, but kids too. We pay for Viking for many reasons above these two things, but these are two of the most important things to us.

I trust that you will have a great time and come back and report to us all the great things. You will find that the vast majority of "us" in this Viking forum love Viking, but still understand that they can have their challenges too. We are at cruise number 10 with Viking and have four booked now for future dates. Enjoy

Our first Viking cruise was the Empires of the Mediterranean and we are a younger couple. This was the cruise that sold us on Viking and we also met what are now life-long friends on that cruise that we have traveled with many times since.

I really do think that this is somewhat of a "loose" rule. They want cancellations to be done in advance because on optionals they are paying by a headcount, but if after the port talk there are some that want to join, they will most likely let you out... you just need to talk to them in the minute and we have always found them accommodating.

We love the port talks on Ocean. One, because they are informative about the destination and then they go through the requirements of each excursion. You also have the opportunity to sign up for additional excursions if the space is open. Perhaps what duquephart was suggesting as sales pitch? You can also stay after and speak with the speaker(s) if you have other questions. With Ocean these are also recorded and you can watch in your cabin if you could not make the talk. On Viking River, they are not recorded. If you miss it you miss it. Talks are generally late afternoon, but as I mentioned, on Ocean, they are recorded and you can watch in your Cabin if you miss it. The port talks are a great feature on Viking.

Agree with everything that you say, and we have seen the same thing - dress code and enforcement of dress code is just dropping away in so many places.

We asked that question and the response was that cash was cash and not traceable but if someone was dealing in stolen passports it was a whole new and bigger game that they were playing. The accepted scenario was that the pickpockets thought they were lifting folders that might contain cash and when they found that cash was not there, they just tossed the passports aside.

Agree. Don't remove your physical SIM. I have iPhone, and you have the setting ability to enable or disable each SIM - either the Home SIM or the eSIM that you are using. You never know when you will want to enable your home SIM and make an emergency call... I would always be prepared for that situation. You do have to make changes to your settings so that your Home SIM is not connecting, and you should figure that out before you leave home.

We experience this on our favourite cruise line - Viking - all the time. Dress code says one thing and the guests dress outside of the expectations. We pack for the dress code, dress the dress code in the evenings because it makes US feel good. We don't do this for anyone other than ourselves. Yes, we could have packed less and worn our jeans and t-shirt to dinner, but we don't stress, and we dress to make ourselves feel good. I actually don't care anymore how anyone else dresses - it is not worth my brain time.

If you cannot go for a health reason, then that may be something covered by cancellation insurance, but you would, like CFAR, have purchased that before the health reason came up, or it would be a pre-existing and probably not covered. That is likely why you want CFAR but that will depend on, as others have said, when you purchased the cruise. CFAR is generally - not always but generally - through the cruise line or the tour operator. There are policies out there that offer CFAR but they are expensive and they generally don't give you full money back.

Some may not like my suggestion here but DO NOT waste your money at the New York Cafe. Go in the door, take a look, but the food is overpriced and the service is horrible. Way too many tourists - including us - get caught spending far too much money for mediocre food and horrible service.

Just you using the word "Cobblestone" in your post is a red flag to me. If cobblestones are an issue, then I don't remember the last European city that I was in that there were not cobblestones for a majority of the walking portions. It is unfortunate really when mobility limits what you can do and enjoy. I hope you find an itinerary that is suitable. The only thing that I can think of is to opt for a cruise itinerary where there are bus trips through the city for a view of the city but then go to other points of interest where there is not so much walking...?

For us, unless the ship states that we need to have our passport physically with us on shore - which does happen from time to time - we leave the passport in the safe. We do carry ID with us - but ID that we can afford to lose or have stolen/pickpocketed. This would be drivers license. Other than the DL we carry credit cards only. We have pictures of our passport on our phones, as we have pictures of all ID. We were on an Eastern Europe River Cruise not too many months ago, when the passports of two guests on our ship were taken by pickpockets. A street vendor recognizing the Viking lollypop of our tour guide came over and asked if perhaps anyone in our group recognized the passport owners. Many of us did. The tour guide called our Cruise Director, she took the passports, and we got them back to the owners at a meeting point. (They were on the same excursion but with a different group). The thing was that at the point of the passports being returned to them they did not even realize that their passports were missing. The street vendor said that he found them on the ground just to the side of his booth and they were likely discarded because the thieves were after money and wanted nothing to do with the passports.

Dress is such a personal thing. Today individual dress choice is even more complicated as we welcome and accept gender fluidity into our worlds. Gender fluidity often also impacts what we wear. I have said this before. We like to dress up a bit - not formal - but a bit for dinner. This makes us feel good. It is about US, not you, not the crew, it is about us feeling good about ourselves. I am of an age that we used to dress up to fly on a plane, to go to the stage theatre, and out to dinner. I don't want to be that formal now, but still like to dress to a point that makes ME feel good about my appearance. I do believe that dress codes of the past should remain in the past now. I do think that if you are clean, and your clothes are clean, then heck, dress the way you want to to express yourself. @CatalinaUK We would love to dine with you in your 40's 50's fashion. Let them grumble. We also like Viking because there are no formal nights. I went on one cruise many years ago now with two formal nights and what a production, and for what exactly. Never again, or if there was a formal night, then I would put on shorts and go to the buffet.

It is not just about moving the booking. If you are looking for perks, some TA's offer perks, some TA's don't, and then there are some TA's that will charge you to handle your booking. It is all about calling and asking what a TA will give you to transfer the booking. You have to do the leg work to find the benefit. We cannot name TA's on this site, but you can expect perks from some. There are MANY discussion threads on CC that go into detail about the pros and cons of using a TA for your cruise booking.

This is nice to know... If we know our bus number we prefer to go to the pier and wait outside instead of being staged. On the river cruises, we are always outside way before when they call our group.

We have already booked beyond summer 2026 on Viking... I have not looked at all the schedules, but there certainly are cruises open for booking through 2026.

From our experience, I don't think that you will find tour companies and guides waiting at the dock for passengers looking for private tours. I think you will have to book all this in advance. The advice of going to other discussion forums on CC is good too. Viator.com is an aggregator, not a tour operator, and they are owned by TripAdvisor. We have great luck with them globally, and just a quick look at tours they offer, I don't feel they are expensive, but I don't know what your level of expensive is. We as travellers have translation Apps on our phones (need data for these to work) and we are not afraid to venture off ourselves and master the local transit or subway system. The subway system in Tokyo was daunting, but no more daunting than the London Tube. Without a translation App that you are comfortable with however in a country like Japan, you may find yourself completely lost. We did find however that ticket machines have an English option, but if you are going to the ticket window, you need the translation app because otherwise you probably won't find an English speaking clerk. Just make sure when and if you book private tours that you make the back on board time, or that is a whole other conundrum. Just as a note, my husband is from China, and speaks fluent Mandarin, but when we travel to China, we do often hire a guide and a driver for private tours that speak English for my sake. We don't find a full day in a private car with a guide and driver to be that expensive but again, it depends on what you consider expensive. When we cruised around Japan, we only did the included or optional tours offered by the cruise line, but we did do significant self-exploration too.

Now this is just based on a one-way home from SJU, but we don't it expensive from this perspective. We have just booked a trans-atlantic from Barcelona to San Juan, and the whole multi-city flight YYZ-BCN / SJU-YYZ is under a thousand bucks CDN. (Economy) To me that is a good price, it is just for us the limitation of airlines that fly from SJU to YYZ and the schedule times that are not optimum. As FlyerTalker has asked - what do you consider expensive?

Viking tend to "stage" the guests in the Star Theatre before disembarking for excursion. It is not a free-for-all rushing the gangway. You get your daily excursion tickets when you board the ship - usually the first night during evening cabin service. The Viking Daily tells you by group letter or number where to go, and at what time. Then you are staged, as I said, in the Star Theatre. Some may be directed to go directly to shore side depending on the excursion. In my experience it has usually been the performance team of 4 that do the announcements in the Star Theatre and they call you by bus number or group number to leave the Star Theatre and migrate to the gangway. If you were planning to explore on your own or you hired a private tour, you would just move to the gangway when it was necessary for you to do so. Viking do tend to corral everyone so there is not a massive mob of people rushing the gangway all at once, but when that number is called, everyone does move pretty quickly.

But then did you have to clear Canadian Customs when landing in Ottawa with your bags? That was I think the reason that you collected your bags in Toronto as then you are on a domestic flight to Ottawa that would not entail customs clearance? I always thought you cleared customs only after collecting your bags as they have the right to search all bags.

Read the policy inclusions and exclusions. Travel insurance is not - in my opinion - about getting the cheapest price, it is about covering you for what you need to be covered for. As we age, we are subject on some policies to answer medical questionnaires and with other companies, we are not required to. Questions to ask yourself and then apply to the policy language: 1) Do you have pre-existing conditions as outlined by the policy as pre-existing? 2) Do you meet the stability period and the stability requirements for a pre-existing condition? 3) Will the policy cover the pre-existing conditions if you don't meet the stability period? 4) Can you risk travel without medical coverage if a pre-existing condition is the reason for medical attention? These are not exhaustive, but again, it is not the price of the coverage, it is what the coverage is. I find that this is a very competitive market out there for insurance, and in my opinion if one company is significantly cheaper, there must be a reason - which translates to less or more restrictive coverage.

If you want an eSIM, then many on CC have had great luck - us included - with Airalo. Note that Airalo is going to work IN PORT, or when the ship is close enough to a port to connect to local cell towers. If you have no tower connection you only have ship's wifi to work with. Airalo offer packages of European countries - you just have to ensure that the package you get covers all the countries you are stopping in.

Checked through - if that is possible - would be the least hassle for you, however, I personally with a 9 hour layover would prefer to get my bags and check them again after the layover. That will however require you to wait at baggage for your bag and that is typically a long time at Pearson and then recheck them after the layover. This is going to take some considerable time out of your sleeping time. I am thinking however that customs would be Toronto, so there may be a requirement for you to collect your bags, then drop them after customs to the connecting flight? You may have to play a role in this. I see people doing this all the time, but living in Toronto I have never had to so don't know exactly how it works. I don't think however you can clear Canada Customs without having your bags with you.